This is the Weineck Cobra replica. Only fifteen will be made, each powered by a custom Donovan racing V8 of 12.9 litres capacity (780ci). Natural twin-carb aspiration, no turbo or S/C or nitro. 1100bhp and 1300ft/lb of torque. Four-speed box and LSD. Accelerates from 0 to 300kph in 10 seconds. Anyone know of anything faster?

Last edited by tezza43 on Mon 23 Jun 2008, 8:43 am; edited 1 time in total

Is a doorslammer street legal? Doorslammers also have a supercharged V8 engine running methanol fuel whereas this Cobra is normally aspirated and no special fuel. The Cobra has carbon-fibre body panels and an aluminium engine built to F1 specs, so it's low in weight. Its quoted power-to-weight ratio is about 1hp per lb of weight. That's like getting a draught horse to pull a 1lb block of butter.

Given that info I don't think it's unbelievable for this Cobra to achieve milestone performance figures for a steet legal car. I guess we won't know until Top Gear or some other show or magazine like that grabs the car and takes it for a really hard spin.

Perhaps we should stick to comparing apples with apples? There will always be as-fast or faster cars, but my question is related to other normally aspirated cars that are registered for road use.

For example the street legal Bugatti Veyron has a quarter mile time of 10.8 seconds and reaches 300kph in 13 seconds with a twin turbocharged W16 engine. And there's "Red Victor One", a 1972 Vauxhall Victor that does the quarter mile in 7.8 seconds and is registered for road use? It has a nitrous twin turbo 9.3 litre V8 and 2200bhp, and goes 0 to 60mph in 1 second. Both of those cars are street legal, however the Cobra does its times without the benefit of turbos, superchargers, nitro fuel, or whatever. It's a shame that Weineck only consider the higher speed times to be important enough for publication.

Until a full evaluation is made by some authoritative magazine or show, there will always be doubt so I again pose the question - anyone know of anything (street legal) that is faster than this (normally aspirated) Cobra?

Grab a copy of the issue of Hot Rod magazine that carries the 'Fastest Street Car in America' Story.

They ran something like fifteen different drag strips across the country. The cars had to be driven between the tracks and had no support equipment or parts that could not be carried in the car or a small trailer towed by the car.

A whole bunch of those guys run in the sixes, but most in the sevens.

With such a short wheelbase and also being so light that little Cobra would be a real handful on a dragstrip and I too would doubt it could run even sub tens. There's no way it would get enough traction off the line.

Did some research and learned that the car is real although only a handful have been built and not to the spec suggested. The company generally builds to the buyers spec and they started the Cobras after deTomaso went belly up as they previously specialised in hot Panteras.

The car pictured seems to have a fairly mild engine and the company admits that the quoted performance was achived by a very special one off version, which was pretty much undrivable by anyone other than the most skilled race car pilots and even those guys had trouble keeping it under control.

The engine pictured has a couple of 750 Dominators on a dual plane Weiand manifold which even (especially?) fitted to such a large capacity engine would not produce the sort of performance suggested.

It's an interesting car all the same although I'd much prefer it without the pro stock hood scoop, those things do not belong on even a replica of a classic sports car.

That's amazing Carps - it must be quite a mchine and I for one look forward to some photos in future. After further research I must admit the times quoted for the Weineck Cobra are all over the place and as you point out, the car is almost uncontrolable without a skilled driver at the wheel. I should imagine it would run high eights or low nines?

I watched the Vauxhall (Red Victor One) on You-Tube and that is some machine, able to beat many top drag cars at their own game, yet somehow it's street legal - it's running sub-eights now. Wow!

yes that is impresive but you guys should go to a powercruise one year all street registerd and most have over 1000bhp and are capable of doing 9s on the 1/4 mile and in queensland thats bloody amazing (and a hell of alot of money) lol

9's with over 1000HP is dissapointing. My cousin Michael's SL/R Torana makes 600ft/lb of torque NA and over 800ft/lb with the gas on, it's a standard stroke 308, and is 100% legally registered and runs low 10's on an 8 inch slick. Shoey's seen the it when we used it for a wedding car a few years ago. The guy that built his motor Mick Brody runs 8.95 in his street regoed LJ Torana on unleaded fuel without gas. If you've got 1000HP you should be running in the 7's at least.

checkmate wrote:9's with over 1000HP is dissapointing. My cousin Michael's SL/R Torana makes 600ft/lb of torque NA and over 800ft/lb with the gas on, it's a standard stroke 308, and is 100% legally registered and runs low 10's on an 8 inch slick. Shoey's seen the it when we used it for a wedding car a few years ago. The guy that built his motor Mick Brody runs 8.95 in his street regoed LJ Torana on unleaded fuel without gas. If you've got 1000HP you should be running in the 7's at least.

yeah thats impressive but these cars do it on street tyres mate as a racer myself its a lot easyer on slicks than street tyres to get a fast time and 600ft\lb of torque aint that much really i mean im not saying its crap but i had 523ft/lb in my datto mate and it ran flat 13s on streat tyres na 1.6ltr at that so i guess wot im saying is if you can do 7s with 1000hp then top door slammers that run aprox 3500hp should be running 4s wot im saying is a car with 100 bhp can easilly beat a car that has 300 bhp its how its used and built and how it all meshes together trust me i have beaten a lot of V8s with running around 3-400 hp in my little datto oh i forgot to mention my datto ran a 11.87 with slicks thats my 2 bob anyways till next time ta ta

Yes that's the Rolls Royce V12 Merlin engined Chev built by Aussie legend Rod Hadfield (http://www.rarespareslegend.com.au/Legends/Rod-Hadfield.htm). It was painted to resemble a P-51 Mustang fighter. The engine was about 27 litres from memory? Did it ever do any serious runs at a strip, rather than road displays?

There is also a 1931 Rolls Royce Phantom II fitted with a detuned Merlin engine (about 1,100hp), which turned a gentleman's car onto a true hot rod for its day. I believe it sold for $412,000 at a recent auction in the USA.